When Sam was a little girl, she used to wander the three miles from her house down to the river and stare up at the trees, watching and wondering what joys and adventures they might hold, and she used to stare across the water, imagining what it might be to swing its breadth on a rope swing; but as much as she wanted one, she never dared ask her parents, for she was forbidden to even come to this secret place, lest she fall in the river and drown.

Now, years later, Sam was no longer a little girl, and no longer even human; but everyone copes with the Change in a different way, and evenings in this secret place had become her time, her time to be her, her time to avoid the stares and the questions, to feel happy and free until the setting sun disappeared through the trees. Soon, she would have to leave this place for another night, to return to her place in the daily grind, to return to the noise and the bustle and the stares, but for now, this was still her secret place, and it finally had a rope swing, one she'd made herself.

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This is many hours with CorelDRAW and a mouse. I really don't know how many. I never quite finished her hands, but I still like the overall composition of the picture, and =Fairiegoodmother's "Enchanted Forest 44" background seems to complement the vector art surprisingly well.

My wife picked the colors, and I think she did a very good job, didn't she?

At some point I may go back and finish Sam's hands, but it's good enough for now.

A follow-up thought. Not only do different species of spider have different abdomens, they also spin different types of webs. If you ever consider basing driders on particular species of spiders, perhaps you could emulate the color and web patterns as well.

I also just thought of a couple examples. Based on the example provided by Working Girl, I began to wonder what different webs driders might use. First example: what about an ogre-faced/net-throwing spider (family Deinopidae) working with the police department or a SWAT team? She could throw nets (usually from above) to apprehend violent criminals. Or a bolas spider (tribe Mastophoreae) working as a rancher, "lassoing" livestock with globs of glue on a thread of silk.

I am indeed working on it, and am now a full chapter and a half ahead of what you've read (and only my wife knows what happens next). You'll see it again eventually, but I want to make sure that when I start posting them again, I can post them very regularly, so you'll have to wait a bit longer for me to get well ahead.

I think he doesn't use it creatively enough. Sam here is showing so much more creativity in her thinking, but we never even see Peter go so far as to even make himself a hammock: Just swing from a string or wrap up a bad guy, and that's it. Sad, really.

When I first started drawing it, I don't really think it was; it was just a happy drider girl on a swing then, but the story struck me while I was working on it. I really kinda like the Caity's World universe, and despite its downsides, it's still almost a world I'd like to try being in.